Spoken Label

Latest up from Spoken Label (Spoken Word / Poetry) Podcast features newcomer the storyteller / short story writer Quigley CB.

More about Quigley can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/quigley_cb/

Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry/Spoken Word Podcast) is our returning friend who we first chatted all the way just after we first got going back in 2016, Ushiku Crisafulli

Ushiku is a chef, poet, playwright, actor, performance artist, comedian, musician, writer, spoken word and hip hop artist, and founder of the OpenMind Collective which curates community focused cross-genre creative collaborations through live events with a multi-disciplinary focus.

He runs the various Bards projects throughout the UK on behalf of Local Gems Poetry Press, and is currently honing his writing, directing, music and comedy skills as a recipient of an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant.

He’s currently working on his second solo show, Unmasked, which challenges language around autistic authenticity through comedy, hip hop, and theatrical monologues and an accompanying exhibition that uses visual arts and soundscapes to challenge the language around autistic enjoyment and environmentalism in collaboration with Filipino Artist Miel Timtiman and Nigerian artist Akilo Joseph. It will be previewing in a free and accessible event at The Peer Hat on Wednesday 13th April from 7pm.

Ushiku advises as a footnote the comedy night he couldn't remember the name off during the session is Comedy for Hot People.

His website is: https://ushikucrisafulli.com/about/

Latest episode from Spoken Label (Spoken Word / Writer / Poet Podcast) heads over to South Africa to speak to our returning friend Alta H Mabin.

Alta is a South African writer, poet and publisher. She has published many e-books and over 20 full paperbacks.

She is also the editor and publisher of Poets Unlimited & Haiku for your soul - both international poetry magazines.

She advises she writes in all poetic genres but lean fully and wholeheartedly towards haiku. 

She also hosts a poetry podcast on Spotify and Anchor. Alta H Mabin.

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: alta.h.mabin

Latest Spoken Label (Poetry / Author Podcast) features the wonderful Culain Wood from Salford. 

Culain Wood is also the host off 'Rhyming Words' which is a new spoken word night at the Globe, Glossop. More details of which (1st event) is at: https://www.facebook.com/events/488963932948540/

Poems read out in this session include:

1. Stop watching the news

2. I was watching the news

3. There's a dog barking

4. Just on what on Earth

Latest up from Spoken Label features the wonderful Moshe Mikanovsky.

Moshe is the author The Resurrector (New Degree Press).

The book is described as "Can someone be brought back from the dead? Could it change the life of the living?

His website is: https://author.mikanovsky.com/

Latest up from Spoken Label (Poet/Artist Podcast) features Andrea Carter Brown, author of 'September 12'.

Poet and editor Andrea Carter Brown is the author of three previous poetry collections: The Disheveled Bed (CavanKerry Press, 2006) and two chapbooks, Brook & Rainbow (winner of the 2001 Sow's Ear Poetry Review chapbook contest) and Domestic Karma, (Finishing Line Press, 2018).

This session talks about her new collection 'September 12'.

This book has being described as "“A more haunting memorial to 9/11 than this book will be hard to find," writes Martha Collins. "Reading September 12 is a wrenching but restorative experience you won't soon forget". In the words of New York State Poet Laureate Alicia Ostriker, "In Andrea Carter Brown's September 12, detail by detail, we watch the process of innocence captured by absolutely unpredicted trauma, and how the experience lives on and on, through shock and terror, through the kindness of strangers, through the heart of a beloved, through grief and elegy, through normality that will never again be normal." And Cynthia Hogue writes, "This brave book documents great loss, but also hard-won psychic resilience in poems of astonishing beauty and wisdom. September 12 is necessary poetry."

More about Andrea can be found at:

https://www.andreacarterbrown.com/

Latest Spoken Label session features the amazing Rebecca Kenny talking about her debut poetry collection 'Crash and Burn'.

'Crash and Burn' covers the events off "At 7.21am on October 1st 2021, Rebecca Kenny was driving to work when she lost control of her car. Skidding on oil and into the path of an oncoming vehicle, she was directly hit, breaking her back, neck, pelvis and sternum - a grand and somewhat impressive total of eleven bones. Following a week in a Major Trauma Centre and extensive physiotherapy, she was able to return home to recover. It was here she decided to document her journey.

Crash & Learn is a collection of poetry written between October 1st and New Year's Day 2022, as Rebecca recovered from her injuries and learned to live with the massive changes the accident had made to her life. It explores the complex process of recovery, both physical and mental, and how a person learns to adjust to a new normal following a traumatic and life-changing event.

Rebecca also runs the publishing house 'Bent Key Publishing' and more details about that and her book can be found at: 

https://www.bentkeypublishing.co.uk/

Pieces read out in this session include: 

1. String Theory

2. The body I used to have

3. Elephant Juice 

4. Lads

Latest up from Spoken Label features the wonderful Carla Mellor,

author of Scraps.

Carla's work is described as:

“Carla reminds us to love our rough edges and embrace the imperfect. A candid and crucial first collection from a bright new voice.” – Toria Garbutt

“Common but not commonplace, lyrical and luminescent. If you like early Armitage, karaoke, Cooper Clarke, cans of Carling, Garry and Garbutt, and growing up working class, you’ll love this book of bitter-sweet poetry from an up-and-coming Northern star.” – Louise Fazackerley

“Microscopic reflections. Half answered questions, half answered.” – Mike Garry

More about Carla can be found at: https://www.carlamellor.co.uk/

Poems read out in this session include:

1. Neurodiversity

2. Karaoke Grandad

3. Scraps

4. Seats

#Poetry #PoetryPodcast #Podcast 

Latest Podcast from Spoken Label features the wonderful Laura Formentini.

Laura in her own words is "I am an author, photographer, and activist. I share how a stranger has helped me to heal from tragic loss thanks to an act of kindness."

She is the author of Twentyone Olive Trees which is "is my personal spiritual pilgrimage from uncontrollable pain to acceptance and healing that I gift to the world to help those going through their own grief and dark moments. I chose the title Twentyone Olive Trees because my son was twenty-one when he passed away and I also intend to plant twenty-one olive trees in his honor at a healing sanctuary that I am currently creating."

1) Intro (Extract)

2) The Weaver by Grant Coldfax

3) Camel and spider (Fable)

4) One thing  

5) What difference does it make? 

More about Laura can be found out at his website: 

https://lauraformentini.com/

Praise for Laura's book include:

Alexa Bigwarfe

Author, Sunshine After the Storm: A Survival Guide for the Grieving Mother

“Truly, 21 Olive Trees is a beautiful expression of a mother’s aching love and will resonate with those who have experienced grief.”

Mea Smith

Author, Grief Like a River: Poems and Illustrations

“Turning the love that grief leaves behind into a piece of beauty that lifts up others, Laura Formeninti shares the life lessons that loving and losing her son has taught her in 21 Olive Trees. These tender and touching fables offer a message of hope to the grieving – that love never dies.”

Lindsey M. Henke, MSW, LICSW

Founder of Pregnancy After Loss Support

“The thread that runs through Twentyone Olive Trees is her eternal love for her son. As a grief counselor to parents who lose babies, I have witnessed countless times how the pain of the loss continues to transform over time and how much solace parents find when they eventually create an “intuitive bridge” between themselves and their child, as the author did. The poignant poems beautifully express the varied experiences of bereaved parents, and the beautifully illustrated fables will teach children and adults alike important lessons in coping with grief and moving toward hope, acceptance and growth. The author’s wish to “lift up as many people as possible” will most certainly be realized as they use their own inner wisdom and imagination to connect with their child after death.”